In three states, New Hampshire, New York, and Massachusetts, the popular vote as measured by the election of delegates to the conventions was adverse to the Constitution; and ratification was secured by the conversion of opponents and often the repudiation of their tacit (and in some cases express) instructions.
In Virginia the popular vote was doubtful.
In the four states which ratified the constitution with facility, Connecticut, New Jersey, Georgia, and Delaware, only four or five weeks were allowed to elapse before the legislatures acted, and four or five weeks more before the elections to the conventions were called; and about an equal period between the elections and the meeting of the conventions. This facility of action may have been due to the general sentiment in favor of the Constitution; or the rapidity of action may account for the slight development of the opposition.
In two commonwealths, Maryland and South Carolina, deliberation and delays in the election and the assembling of the conventions resulted in an undoubted majority in favor of the new instrument; but for the latter state the popular vote has never been figured out.[[577]]
In one of the states, Pennsylvania, the proceedings connected with the ratification of the Constitution were conducted with unseemly haste.
CHAPTER IX
THE POPULAR VOTE ON THE CONSTITUTION
In the adoption of the Constitution, says James Wilson, we have the gratifying spectacle of “a whole people exercising its first and greatest power—performing an act of sovereignty original and unlimited.”[[578]] Without questioning the statement that for juristic purposes the Constitution may be viewed as an expression of the will of the whole people, a historical view of the matter requires an analysis of “the people” into its constituent elements. In other words, how many of “the people” favored the adoption of the Constitution, and how many opposed it?
At the very outset, it is necessary to recall that the question whether a constitutional Convention should be held was not submitted to popular vote, and that it was not specially passed upon by the electors in choosing the members of the legislatures which selected the delegates.[[579]]
In the second place, the Constitution was not submitted to popular ratification. The referendum was not unknown at that time, but it was not a fixed principle of American politics.[[580]] At all events, such a procedure does not seem to have crossed the minds of the members of the Convention, and long afterward, Marshall stated that ratification by state conventions was the only mode conceivable.[[581]] In view of the fact that there was no direct popular vote taken on the Constitution, it is therefore impossible to ascertain the exact number of “the people” who favored its adoption.
The voters, who took part in the selection of delegates to the ratifying conventions in the states, may be considered as having been divided into four elements: those who were consciously in favor of the Constitution, those who were just as consciously against it, those who were willing to leave the matter to the discretion of their elected representatives, and those who voted blindly.